Why Lingayats feel lured by minority status? It means it is burdensome to be part of majority religion & majority community. Why is it advantageous to be minority & the otherway for majority? Is it just political issue. No, it is equally constitutional
The reason for majority running away from its religion is the way art 29/30 of the constitution was interpreted by the SC in 1950s (Kerala Education Bill case). SC held that the minority rights under the articles are not limited to culture or language but extend to secular domain
The only dissenting judgement was of TL Venkatrama Iyer who said the rights under art to establish & manage educational institutions is limited to their language & culture and would not include general medical & engineering colleges
The SC majority decision meant the minorities could give secular education without govt interference in appointments, without reservation for backward classes, without RTE burden but not that majority institutions
The Lingayats want to run away not from Hinduism but from the restrictions on their educational and religious institutions, including RTE, which as majority they are subjected to.
First Arya Samaj in Punjab claimed it is separate from Hindus. Courts held it was minority. Next Ramakrishna mission attempted saying it was not Hindu but Ramakrishnaites which the courts said no to.
The real reason for this the SC interpreting the minority rights under the constitution as not just protective so that minority is denied what the majority will have but proactive so that the minority gets what is denied to the majority
Both govts & SC saw the need for course correction in 1970s. In 1970 (2) SCC 417 before a constitution bench headed by Justice Hidayatulla Mohan Kumaramangalam representing Kerala State then under CPM rule said the minority rights would not be denied to the majority
But after that the government's began imposing so much of social burden on majority institutions like the latest RTE law, to relieve them of the buden became politically unviable. Result majority institutions are almost like government subsidiaries.
This is unjust polity working against the majority which will take a long time to correct. Unless the political imbalance is corrected the majority minority imbalance cannot be corrected. It calls for a natural polity. Indian polity is minority biased.
That is the reason which attracts segments of majority to opt for minority status. Can we think of this happening in any part of the work Muslim Christian or others. Never. Everywhere else it is advantageous to be majority. Only in India shamelessly it is otherwise
